


Never Drink Alone

by mydetheturk



Series: Myde's Fictober Fics [22]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Drinking, Gen, Mentioned Canonical Character Death, Mentioned Gol D. Roger, Scars, that's the mentioned character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydetheturk/pseuds/mydetheturk
Summary: It's been fifteen years, and Shanks is hanging out in a tavern drinking alone.
Series: Myde's Fictober Fics [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950175
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9
Collections: Fictober20





	Never Drink Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Shanks needs some friends who don't live with him. Quincy needs more people around who are _adults_ and not basically his kids. 
> 
> Fictober Prompt: And Neither Should You

Shanks was drinking in a lonely tavern on a quiet Spring Island in the New World. The ale was good, with a healthy, robust flavor and lovely undertones.

And Shanks was not in any position to particularly _enjoy it_. He never really was, this time of the year.

Shanks had turned thirty recently, and he’d been without his Captain for as long as he’d had him. It hurt.

“Captain Shanks, you really shouldn’t be out on your own without your crew,” someone said beside him.

A quick glance with his good eye and a cursory feel with his Haki revealed that it was merely Quincy, a smuggler he was on decent terms with.

“You probably shouldn’t either,” Shanks countered. The smuggler shrugged and sat across the table from Shanks. “Where’s your rapscallions?”

The man waved a hand. “Gave them the night off. Teenagers, yanno?” Shanks understood – he’d been a kid in the New World too, a lifetime ago.

So had Quincy, once.

There was a pinched look at the corners of his eyes, and the burns along the right side of his face looked, to Shanks’s inexperienced eye, almost, but not entirely, like a handprint. Admittedly, it’d been almost twenty years, but hell, Shanks knew how scars healed or didn’t heal.

Some scars never healed right. They’d scab over, but one wrong move would have them fresh again.

“So, Shanks, what has _you_ of all Captains drinking alone?” Quincy asked. He swirled his drink a little, killing some of the head on his ale.

It… probably wouldn’t hurt to talk about it.

“Just. Memories. It’s been fifteen years.”

Warm eyes stared at him for a brief moment. “Seas, has it really been that long?” He caught the attention of the bartender and held up a pair of fingers. The bartender nodded and prepared another couple of pints.

Once the mugs arrived, Quincy held up his and said, “To your Captain,” in a solemn tone that Shanks wasn’t used to hearing when people were talking about Captain Roger.

“To the Captain,” Shanks choked out.

They clinked their mugs and drank.

Quincy made an undignified snorting sound. “ _Seas_ , I hope you remember this. You were like, ten so I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t but do you remember the time –”

“Oh no.”

“No! It’s fine! You and Buggy always were little shits.”

Shanks knew. Shanks knew _exactly_ what Quincy was talking about. “Fuck, with the –”

A peal of laughter. “You do remember!”

Shanks cracked up. “ _Both_ our captains were _so mad_ ,” he cackled. Other patrons in the tavern looked at them, a few glowering at the two laughing captains.

This morose little trip away from his crew might actually turn out okay, Shanks thought. It was nice to reminisce about times gone by with someone who was _there_. 


End file.
